


Flirting with Capgras

by HaephestusCrex



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, Depression, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Female Reader-Insert, Geniuses, Grief/Mourning, Hallucinations, Multi, Obsession, Pining, Post-Dark Side Of Dimensions, Psychological Drama, Psychological Trauma, Sci Fi Elements, Seto's back from the duel with Atem, Substance Abuse, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, auditory hallucinations, awkward genius meets put together genius, i needed a premise but i was really tired from my shitty job when i started this, really bad first chapter but stick with it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:54:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23269528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaephestusCrex/pseuds/HaephestusCrex
Summary: Circling the emotional drain and unable to prevent it despite his best efforts to help you, Ken Watari watches as opportunity quite literally comes knocking at his humble little repair shop, when Battle City finalists come in with a broken duel disk, and meet an equally broken head engineer - you.An absolute prodigy and utterly wasted in your current job, the King of Games takes notice, and it all sort of goes to Hell in a handbasket from there.-"Name's Buckshot, I'm the head engineer," you stand before Yugi Mutou in a stained, over-large men's hoodie stained with sauce and eyes framed in large, black, gaunt rings.  "Your friend's duel disk is an interesting kind of fucked, how'd you manage that?"You leered at Jonouchi, Yugi laughed - and the rest was history - now all he had to do was convince Seto Kaiba you were absolutely perfect for their new game project.
Relationships: Kaiba Seto/Reader, Mutou Yuugi/Reader
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37





	1. Eviction

_Chapter One_

**\- EVICTION-**

“Hey Buckshot, how are ya for gamer fuel?” Watari calls into the dark back room, which is littered with empty cans of highly caffeinated colas over the desk and floor. It is illuminated by various bright, heavy studio lights that force him to adjust his glasses with a grimace as he comes in with a rubbish bag.

“Yeah, good, thanks,” you grunted, face bathed in light with a heavy set of magnification goggles to look deep into a pile of wires and a large motherboard that had been packed into a duel disk. There is a pile of small nails, bolts, plastic and metal shavings scattered throughout the work station you are sat at. The bleat of the harsh lighting conditions produced their own heat, causing you to wear a thin, light off-white tank top and loose blue shorts in the workshop. It helped you identify all of the small moving parts and any engraved detailing that could easily be cloaked in poor lighting. You worked in Watari’s Repair Centre on the outskirts of Domino, and were the rarely seen skulking engineer who worked in the back room. Watari’s Repair Centre was a third party repair facility for phone repairs, laptop repairs, and duel disks - though not formerly authorised for the latter, and generally voids any warranty. 

  
“Are you staying back late tonight?” Watari is casual, but concerned. You wave your hand away at him idly in a blasé gesture.

  
“Probably, I’m finishing a piece for my assessment after this fix and I don’t want to go back to my place. Can I take the sofa-bed?” you asked. Watari just shook his head with an unsurprised smile, and sighed.

  
“At this rate, you may as well move in,” Watari said, before saying yes. He’s making dinner, he adds - and expects you to join him in his home above the shop for dinner, or at the very least, to eat the leftovers he’ll leave in the oven if you fail to join him. He is so used to your habits at that point that you’re basically family. Ken Watari is a successful small business owner, and could be considered the closest thing to a real family you had. He is a gentle, kind, and generous man who took you into his work and home without question. He saw your brilliance getting wasted and pushed adrift, in danger of disappearing from the world and couldn’t let it happen. In Japanese society, higher education is absolutely prided, and there aren’t many that have fully accepted distant, remote study as a valuable form of education, but Ken personally assessed your abilities, and knew that you were far beyond anything the world could offer you - you were far too smart for the course you’re on, and the demands of his workplace. And yet, he wasn’t comfortable letting you go, he had to try and keep you from falling into obscurity, or the same, depressive darkness that he had been in when his son, Aito, had passed. It had been a year, and yet the gap of his absence was felt just as clearly as the day he died. 

Aito had been truly brilliant. It was perhaps why Watari was so attached to you too, because he saw that same light inside of you, and he was desperate to preserve it. Aito was everything you aspired to be, he had similar levels of utterly prodigious talent but had every quality you lacked - he was able to function in polite society with beauty and grace. He was charming, and had a sharp business acumen that was moulded to not only take over the family business, but to promote his own. The pair of you were absolute titans of your fields, and when you worked together, business had never been so efficient. He knew exactly how to tailor your more unrefined nature to be more palatable for the general public.

Aito made it seem like the two of you could really do anything. That the pair of you could come together and do more than just customise and repair duel disks all day. He supported your studies, and knew that you weren’t the sort of person that should simply be left without a stimulus, because a you without a stimuli was not only a criminal waste but was a great personal detriment to your overall health. 

  
You, left unchecked with a project though, was infinitely worse - as Ken was coming to discover. You would work, and work - barely showering and eating, and almost agoraphobically avoiding going outside or meeting customers. There was no Aito to convince you otherwise, to limit you - and without him, you truly are limitless.

  
As the door creaked shut behind Ken, you leaned back in your computer chair, and pulled the goggles back up over your head to rub your eyes. You put down the small screwdriver in the pile of screws and slid to your dual monitor setup at the other end of the room. 

  
You truly are limitless.

  
Wiggling your mouse to dispel the screensaver, you login and open up a few different open source programs - SkyTorch, a program used for applications like computer vision and natural language processing that was developed by Schroeder Corp, KC_Build.kc - and a few other coding-based building programs, that ultimately served as different puzzle pieces that would slowly come together for your final project. You and Aito had started it, back when it was just the pair of you working off of a clumsy, broken pile of public access code for a neural network model “Alecto 2” yanked from BitHub. Together, you had made it something capable of taking inputted text and produced an audio spectogram from the results. You had spent months - years even, training that neural model, and using Schroeder Corp’s own vocoder-type software, Waveread, to translate the spectograms into a readable audio file. 

  
The combination of the two neural network models and the project you had painstakingly made around it, and then trained, to skilfully extract information from different voices and accents and be able to produce resulted in what you’d casually dubbed a “deep fake” - an AI capable of generating new dialogue in the voices it had “learned” that would be indistinguishable from the person it was based on. It was affectionately named THEO, and for the longest of time was just a “put your text here and listen to a learned voice repeat back your sentence.”

  
Except now you’d spent a year after Aito’s death, altering THEO so that it was now training itself to respond to typed questions on its own. With all the leaps and bounds that technology and coding in general had made as a result of the technology monoliths - KaibaCorp, Schroeder Corp and Industrial Illusions, you had quickly, and disturbingly, began producing an AI that could begin to learn accents, and had some form of voice command. There were one or two in existence, of course, but they weren’t half as smart, nor able to come up with organic responses yet.

  
But you’d spent every day talking to THEO - because THEO had spent every moment of its existence listening to Aito’s voice, scanning thousands and thousands of audio files of the two of you hanging out, gaming audio you uploaded of him playing online - after he passed. THEO knew three voices, you, Aito, and a freelance voice actor you’d hired via Joblist.

  
You loaded up THEO in the quiet, empty workshop, and a blue program with no background besides the visual audio waveforms moving hypnotically as its voice spoke through your speakers.

  
_“Good evening, Buckshot.”_

  
You ignored the clinching feeling deep in the base of your chest. This was necessary, you told yourself - so that THEO could learn. He had to be used and spoken to in order to gain more intelligence, he even fed off of Aito’s old duel disk data just so that he could think in a similar strategic pattern after you’d added another layer of complexity to the neural models that made up his programming. You lean towards the desktop’s external microphone, and click the “voice command” button on the largely empty program, located at the bottom of the moving waveforms.

  
_‘It doesn’t need to be Aito’s voice, though.’_

  
You ignore the traitorous thought, and ignore the warmth building up behind your eyelids as you blinked, and the slight blurriness in your vision from a layer of water threatening to trickle down into tears. 

  
“Hey THEO, do I have any new emails? Anything important I should know about?” you recline backwards in your chair, and stare vacantly at the ceiling, wondering how many days of this would pass before it stopped hurting to hear Aito’s voice. It’s just an AI, you remind yourself, but if it truly didn’t mean anything, it wouldn’t feel so impossible to switch THEO’s voice from Aito’s to yours, or Soo Yin’s - the voice actor.

  
Yet you could not bring yourself to do it.

_"Nah Buckshot, you're all good. You should probably eat soon, though,"_ THEO responded - and you snort, even your own AI wasn't above giving you a lecture about self-care.

  
Truly, the status of THEO was a testament to both yours and Aito’s brilliance, the development of something like this would take a team of brilliance, and even more legwork to complete it and make it smarter, and more complex. But, you couldn’t bring yourself to finish it by getting outside help, even if it drove you to tears, when Python code would break for no fucking reason, or if simply hearing Aito’s voice was too much. You two had started it, and now Aito was dead, you vowed to finish it.

  
You were hellbent on getting THEO completed, and launching all the ideas you had farmed, developed, worked on with - or simply had been encouraged by, Aito, to finish. Even if it killed you.

  
_Especially if it killed you._

  
One carbonated fizzy drink would become ten. 

One coffee would become fifteen.

One twelve hour programming session would become forty-eight.

  
In Ken Watari’s opinion, your brilliance could not be left unchecked, and he absolutely encouraged you fulfilling the goals that his son had encouraged, and been part of. He had no idea how to continue in the direction Aito had, though. He was an older man, and developing the Repair Centre had been completely different to the kind of modern start-up business Aito and you had planned, and Ken was very aware of this lack of understanding. It didn’t mean he wasn’t willing to learn, though, and try to help you any way that he could.

  
Aito had been keyed in and switched on, ready to be a young entrepreneur, with your brains behind his charm, and the pair of you working off of each other’s spectacular abilities. It was rare that two gifted people would cross paths like that, Ken knew. He knew the moment he sat in on the pair of you working in the back of the shop together on a desperate project that you were both destined for great things.

  
He just didn’t think his son would die before then, or that he would have to somehow pick up the pieces. 

  
Ken Watari silently cooked dinner for two and leaves your portion in the oven when the clock hits 11:30PM, and you’re still downstairs in the shop. 

  
He eats alone, and sleeps in an empty double bed, and wonders if he could ever find the words to get you to slow down, and take care of you the way he knew his son would want you to. 

He just wants you to slow down, because he is terrified that nobody will ever be able to catch up.

* * *

The eviction notice shouldn’t have been a surprise, you were so wrapped up in all of the development you’d been doing on your AI and your course in between pulling extra shifts at Watari’s Repair that you didn’t even notice your direct debit not going through. Soon enough, the incredibly slim sliver of reality that separated you from work was completely worn through, because Ken Watari refused to see you out on the street.

He also didn’t want you finding a new place, apparently, you needed a carer, and managing to get yourself evicted from a landlord who was looking for any reason to oust tenants so he could rework the property without paying them out correctly was apparently evidence of that. That, and your diet consisting of largely caffinated fizzy drinks and gum showed Ken that you were absolutely not the sort of person to be left to your own devices. No, he wouldn’t hear of you living anywhere else.

So now you lived above the Repair shop, and getting you out of the workshop was even more difficult than before. Sometimes, Ken even caught you sleeping in there. You stopped wearing the work uniform shirt and the other employees didn’t question it. Even as you began to get more and more lax until you were usually in a pair of small, baggy shorts, largely covered up by an over-large men’s hoodie with the occasional unidentified food stain on it, walking around the back room in your house slippers.

If you weren’t the best at what you did, there was no way anybody would let you get away with that.

And you hardly saw customers, unless somebody wanted custom aesthetic work done on their duel disk or something, because everyone knew better than to make you client facing - so when Ken Watari hesitantly called you to the shop floor, everyone subtly paused their duties to listen in.

Two men - Battle City finalists no less, had come into the store, one of them the easily recognisable King of Games, and the other, Jonouchi Katsuya, who had been on a quest to find a repair centre that would actually work on his far out of warranty duel disk for a more reasonable price.

“Man, if you can actually get this thing runnin’ again I’ll be shocked,” said Jonouchi to Ken, who just offered a small smile.

“Oh, we will, we just finished running your serial number on the database for your proof of ownership, she ah - she’ll talk you through the device rights - don’t let her fool you, she’s quite brilliant,” he ignored the look of unimpressed trepidation on both men when you stumbled out, scruffy clothed and with a long, thick, unbrushed dark ponytail that cascaded from the top of your skull, down your back, with loose strands of hair falling over your forehead.

Jonouchi and Yugi look at each other skeptically, and Ken catches the look, but merely smiles benignly at them, while you stumble over your words, voice a little hoarse from slim use outside of the company of your computer.

"Name's Buckshot, I'm the head engineer," you stand before Yugi Mutou in a stained, over-large men's hoodie stained with sauce and eyes framed in large, black, gaunt rings. "Your friend's duel disk is an interesting kind of fucked, how'd you manage that?" you are seemingly oblivious to the unprofessional veneer you give off, and merely begin cleaning your left ear out with your finger in apparent boredom.

You leered at Jonouchi when you declared his device bricked in not so elegant terms, and it’s now that the King of Games actually laughs, if only to diffuse the awkwardness that followed.

“It - it updated or somethin’!” Jonouchi is defensive in tone “-now it spits out all my cards and flickers, then turns off! Right as the new duel disk comes out. I swear rich boy is jus’ doin’ it so we all hafta pay an arm and a leg for the upgrade,” - which, wasn’t a bad theory, except you had taken a brief examination of the device and came out after twenty minutes almost certain of the cause.

“Right, that’s security update 2.0 - came in after some new data protection laws to protect duellist’s data. Somehow, maybe if you dropped the disk or something, you accidentally triggered a manual reboot, and now it wants some information only an official repair centre can give, to disable the remote FRP - Factory Reset Protection, on it, to assure it isn’t stolen. I mean, we aren’t licensed,” you scratched the back of your neck and yawned. “I can hack the BIOS on that thing and disable it though, since you’re Jonouchi Katsuya, and this is very _obviously_ your duel disk - it has all your data on it, and I saw your proof of ownership digital document attached to the serial. Obviously, this voids the warranty for all time, and most official KaibaCorp repair places wont touch it once the BIOS is hacked, but I can do it,” you said blandly.

The blond seemed to preen at being ‘obviously’ recognised - even though you had to look at his duelling data and actually look up some of his duels as Battle City had been a while back and even during it, you weren’t paying too much attention. You at least didn’t voice that, for Ken Watari’s sake, you don’t actually intend to drive away good business.

“You can hack a duel disk?” Yugi said quietly, a little impressed. Kaiba’s systems are pretty robust, and to his knowledge, only other titans of the industry were even able to do that, but you just shrug. Duel disks were probably smaller potatoes than actual KaibaCorp servers and systems, it’s probably Yugi’s own lack of technical understanding that made it seem impressive, he reasoned to himself.

“Me, and the few others skilled enough to bother, most just go through KaibaCorp licensing and get the official tools to remove FRP without a hack, but it’s kind of a whole process and we can’t afford that yet as a business expense, plus we generally repair more personal computers and phones than duel disks, the latter is a pretty new service - along with the custom aesthetic jobs,” you gesture to a wall mounted TV screen that displayed a duellist whose duel disk had been outfitted to shine with a bright, crimson light instead of blue, with a metallic red coating over the previously white parts.

“That could tide you until you can get a new duel disk,” Yugi suggested to his friend “-not many people have custom ones these days, and I’ve never seen one like that,”.

“I’m down with a pimped up duel disk,” said Jonouchi after a moment “-how much is that gonna hurt my wallet?”.

“I don’t charge for the extra labour if it’s already booked in repair, just for parts or laser-cutting a new body if you want a complete overhaul,” you grumbled, not really looking at either of them - important customers or not, dealing with them was pretty much everyone else’s job but yours, but for some reason, Ken wanted you to meet them. “You can look at the catalogue of custom work on the website,” you sighed, almost tangibly impatient.

“I’m sorry - I just, I’ve got to - go work on something, expanding battery, crisis case,” you mumbled to Ken, just for an excuse to leave, and thankfully he dismisses you, but not before giving you a meaningful look.

“Sorry about her, she’s - not good with people, brilliant, just - not at that,” said Ken gently “-honestly she’s a little wasted here, so give her something nice and complex to do and you’ll make her day, she loves a good little BIOS breaking,”.

Yugi nods in acknowledgement while Jonouchi flips through the store’s humble little website on a large touch screen that is embedded to the left of the store, humming and remarking loudly on the various custom disks with interest.

“Just how good is she?” he asks, with more than a passing interest.

Ken Watari had no idea the course of events his answer would spawn.


	2. Talent

_Chapter Two_

**-TALENT-**

“Put on something nice,” he’s gentle, but firm - taking your beloved hoodie that you’d been living in for most of the week and putting it into a laundry pile.

“I don’t have anything nice,” you replied, scratching the back of your neck idly until Watari quite literally threw a fresh pair of clothes at your face. You catch it deftly, and scowl at his somewhat anxious pattering around the living room.

“I don’t understand the big deal,” you reiterated “-seriously, what are we getting out of this? Is he going to do a promo post or something?” a promotional tweep or Instax post from the King of Games would actually carry some clout in terms of advertising and encouraging good business, but aside from that, you cannot fathom why Watari is fretting as much as he is. Unbeknownst to you, Watari is far more anxious about the reception you got from the Battle City finalists more than the impact it could have on business. He very much sang your praises when you had gone back to the back room yesterday, and he had caught the spark of interest in the young duellists eyes, which had followed some gently probing questions that the shrewd businessman had picked up on.

Ultimately, he thought an involvement with the King of Games could be good for you, especially as they’re closer to your own age, and could at least reel you back from the Aito-induced hole that his death had plunged you into, and the disturbing amount of time you were spending training your neural network as opposed to socialising with real people.

“That would be good,” Watari replied “-but we didn’t discuss that. He just had a few questions about the repairs process, and our head engineer. I have a good feeling you need to make a better impression - oh, and on that note _, do_ brush your hair,” he said, rather vaguely.

“Questions? What questions?” you took on a sharper tone, looking at the clothes in your hand which Watari had gone out of his way to clean. “-what do you mean a better impression? Don’t get coy with me old man, what have you done?”.

Watari tutted at you in light disapproval, though his ears burned a bit from your tone that had assumed he’d done something - because, well, you weren’t exactly incorrect.

“It was just questions about your capabilities. You’re young for a title like head engineer, not much older than Mutou, he was curious - so I answered honestly,” Watari replied in too-innocent tone. “And I believe he took an interest,” - he chose his words carefully, but you turned an awkward colour and visibly balked. What did Watari mean, take an interest? Your mind raced for a moment, but seeing you visibly cringe, he gives you a cheeky smile.

“In your abilities, and the course you’re on at Domino University, I mean. He was very interested in your developer blog, actually. In fact, he asked me to make sure you’d be working today so he could talk to you about it,” Watari smirks when you let out a long, exaggerated groan at the idea, purely because the last thing you wanted to do was put yourself client-facing and provide an opportunity to mess up business for Watari or make yourself uncomfortable, which is why you excused yourself hurriedly yesterday.

“Why my dev blog? It’s boring!” you whine “-He didn’t need to see that!”.

“Like I said, he was curious, and it’s public,” Watari shrugged “-Anyway, when was the last time you socialised with someone outside of work, hmm? You spend hours and hours with THEO and frankly, I’m getting concerned. Can you please just freshen up and make an effort? For me?”.

Shit, the old man really knew how to work your emotions to his advantage. Still, you cannot help but feel immediately defensive when he brings up the amount of time with your AI, and general devotion to machine learning which, at the more complex level, wouldn’t even be covered in your distance program, unless you took a Msc specialising in it several years from now. So it couldn’t even be called school work, you were leaps and bounds ahead of where you should be and were essentially doing it for the qualification.

“There is nothing wrong with spending time with THEO, machine learning is making serious advancements all over the globe and I’m just trying to match the pace. I want to submit it as my final project in a few years when this is all done and the better I get him, the more chance I have to get on a good research-based Masters and not just some shitty top-up course that says I know the bare-minimum. My eye is on the ball! Okay? For the first time in…God, ever. I’m not doing it just for fun!” you argued, feeling your face burn at the unconvinced look that was levelled at you.

“Dammit Watari, I want a phD someday! THEO wasn’t just my baby, it was Aito’s too,” you scowled “-I thought you understood,” - at this, the older man looked a little struck, and instantly you felt like an ass. Of course Watari understood - Aito was his child, and he was speaking purely from a place of concern. You instantly deflated the moment the words left your lips, and pulled the loose Sanrio t-shirt over your head with a defeated sigh.

“Okay, uncalled for. I’m an ass. Sorry, I need coffee,” you mumbled, though it didn’t excuse your immediate abrasive response to the kindly man. “-And you’re probably right. You generally always are, I know I’m bad at - well, everything that isn’t work. So… If you’re concerned, it’s probably for a good reason. I didn’t mean to throw that in your face.”

Watari sighed, and you only knew you were forgiven when he began to gently pat the top of your head in silent affection.

“In a lot of ways you’re still a kid, even if you are old enough to drink, and as smart as you are. You’re just a child with bills, and you need a kick up the ass now and then, but you’re a good kid,” just a little mixed up, if he’s honest. “And you need to do more than hang out with this old geezer. Battle City finalists or not, I will always encourage you to make friends your own age range, even if you hate me for it.”

You scoff, and look up at him, pulling an oversized zip-up Domino University hoodie over your Sanrio t-shirt. This was probably the nicest you’d look for customers.

“Friends is ambitious at best - but you know I couldn’t hate you old fart,” you smile a little, and he returns it. “So, tell me more about this apparently enlightening conversation you had with the King of Games.”

You were not prepared for the answers.

* * *

You spent most of that morning bustling through easy software repairs and minor hardware problems like loose charging ports and cracked screens. Jonouchi’s duel disk was unlocked and now in working order, and sat on a separate work bench, while you awaited information over email regarding the kind of custom work he’d want.

Email contact, you could do a damn sight better than actual human conversation. Granted, you didn’t do it often and often left it to Fukawa - an entry level employee, to sort through and just give you the details per repair ticket. All custom work requests came to a separate email that only you and Watari had access to, as it was such a new service for the repair centre.

It seemed however, that Jonouchi Katsuya had no idea what he wanted, so you were just pitching ideas back and forth for most the part. You didn’t realise the clock tick by and time pass until Watari came knocking and informed you politely that you were finishing up early.

“Hm?” the King of Games had slipped your mind after a long day of expecting him, but assuming that something had come up and that he wouldn’t come in the further you etched into the afternoon, you did not expect him to come by at 4PM.

“Mister Mutou is in the front of the shop, have you taken lunch?” Watari knows the answer, of course, judging from the gum wrappers surrounding you and the fact you forgot your lunch in the house upstairs. You pointedly don’t answer, pretending not to hear the last part of his question, you straighten up.

“Yugi Mutou actually came back in? Shit,” you mutter, tugging your high-waisted, scruffy old jeans up a bit more before following after Watari. He led you out to the front and gives a genial smile to Fukawa, who is working the PC at the register and answering general emails while Yugi Mutou stood at the other side of the counter, smiling brightly.

“And here is the woman of the hour, I’m surprised I didn’t have to drag you out,” Watari chuckled, checking the time on his watch. “She’s such a worker bee, honestly Mister Mutou, you’re doing us a favour. Buckshot - you’re finishing early. You’re ahead on the tickets and Houka is coming in later to cover, he’s been wanting overtime,”.

“As long as it isn’t inconveniencing you Mister Watari,” Yugi replied, before turning that bright smile on you, which made you shift from foot to foot uncomfortably, tugging your fingers through the end of your ponytail.

“You sure you don’t need me?” you look away from Yugi, looking pointedly at Watari as if to reiterate that you could not believe he had, essentially, hooked you into a playdate with a customer even as a grown-ass adult.

“Shoo!” huffed Watari “-I have Fukawa, don’t I? You’re done for the day. You didn’t take lunch either did you? Go take a late lunch,” it was beginning to sound like an order, and he had a look in his eye as though he was daring you to try and challenge his authority in front of a customer. You had at least a marginal respect for Japanese work custom despite how you dressed and presented, and just about bit back a playful but catty reply in front of the King of Games, who was watching with some amusement.

“But--”

“No buts, besides, gum and cola does not constitute a lunch,” he chided gently.

Oh, this was changing from a business discussion to a forced luncheon playdate far too quickly for your liking, and as if on cue following that thought, Yugi chimed in - trying to be helpful.

“My friend has a cafe in the centre,” Yugi offered, “We can talk shop over a late lunch, I’ll take you back if we finish late, if that’s alright,” he calls you by your actual name, which is on your nametag attached to your hoodie - and you cringe visibly, removing it and tossing it to Watari, whose handing you your keys from behind the counter in case you got in after hours.

“Buckshot, please,” you mutter. Yugi doesn’t react, and just corrects himself, unperturbed by your obvious desire not to socialise with him. In fact, he seems to be treating the whole thing with a casual air and is totally at ease, even if you yourself are visibly uncomfortable, any awkwardness he used to have has long since been shed.

“I would appreciate if you did that very much Mister Mutou, thank you,” said Watari, though he fully expects that your phone is charged and for you to call if you have any issues. He didn’t expect you to be out terribly long, but he was rather hoping you would be. Now, he doesn’t know Mutou at all, and privately he is quite protective of you, but he sees no harm in allowing you to make your own mistakes if it means you’re at the very least taking a screen break and going out into the world.

And Ken Watari would never deprive you of an opportunity, especially to get you away from the shop. As much as he relied on you, you really didn’t need to be there as much as you were, and your eviction did take away that small sliver of work-home separation you used to have.

After essentially being dismissed, you shoot one glare at Fukawa, whose smirking at you, and turn to leave with Yugi Mutou. He holds the door open politely, and you mumble a thank you under your breathe. So, Mutou wanted to talk shop - and according to Watari, had some sort of project he was starting, and was curious about your specialisms. It was a chance encounter, and it felt like Watari was desperately trying to make it mean something.

“So, Mister Mutou,” you start off awkwardly, following alongside him and ignoring the self-conscious feelings that rise as you walk beside the stranger. You didn’t know him, but you at least knew of him, and felt entirely off-kilter walking side by side with him to what is a forced luncheon. “-You want to talk ‘shop’ with me?”.

Yugi doesn’t miss a beat, and is still walking ahead with a confident stride, glancing at you with an easygoing smile.

“Just Yugi is fine, if I get to call you by a nickname, you can call me by my first name,” he offered, rather generously in your opinion, a very forward kindness and familiarity that isn’t easily afforded in Japanese culture. It takes you a moment to adjust, and you can feel your cheeks flush from how awkward you are, and how very aware of it you were.

You hated hearing it in your own voice.

“Cool,” you said lamely. “So, uh…” you trail off, leaving an awkward silence that Yugi doesn’t seem to be remotely affected by. He easily fills the conversational void and for that you are thankful, because even in your nicer clothes, you feel scruffy and inelegant walking beside him in his finely pressed Oxford shirt and form-fitting waistcoat that oozed a smart-casual fashion sense.

“I spoke with your boss yesterday,” Yugi said “-because I never came across a custom shop that wasn’t online, and when he said you were head engineer, I just…well you aren’t that much older than me. I was kinda curious, so I said I’d drop by to ask you a little about yourself and what you do. Will that be alright?” he is trying to be considerate, because you made no secret of your discomfort.

You recall Watari pleading with you this morning to make an effort, and so, with some reluctance, you nod.

“Sure. ‘M not that interesting though, Mister M-- err, Yugi,” you faltered, but he doesn’t seem to mind. “I just…fix things, that’s all,”.

Yugi actually chuckled at that, because he discussed you at some length with Watari, and knows you cannot be boiled down to your job description, but decides to switch gears for a moment.

“Don’t sell yourself short, but ah - look at me, I’m talking your ear off already and you’re probably starving. You don’t mind going to the mall do you? It’s where my friend’s cafe is,” he figures to ask, because you ooze a social awkwardness, and while going to a packed mall doesn’t fill you with dread or anything, it isn’t your first choice. You just shrug, and try to reflect the man’s smile.

“Mall is fine, I don’t go there much so I don’t really know what’s there, the centre is…busy,” you said, wincing internally at how distinctly uncool you sound. Yugi Mutou doesn’t seem to be bothered by - well, anything. Really. He makes conversation at you, rather than with you - but you’re grateful that he fills the void until the mall is in sight, and he leads you in a more comfortable silence towards the food court, where Otogi’s Cafe is set up.

“Hey Yugi!” a waiter calls over, and you suppose that is probably the friend that he mentioned owning the place. He grins, and after serving a drink to a customer, he begins heading towards you both with a beaming air of happiness.

He’s got a slender, long-legged form and a neat little pastel apron around his waist, a very pale olive complexion, pitch black hair in a neater and slightly lower ponytail than yours, and bright, glistening green eyes that shined in beneath the ceiling lights like emeralds.

He’s fucking pretty as anything, and you felt yourself get more uncomfortable, unable to really look him in the face without feeling shy - as you were already so out of your element.

“Hey Ryuji, how’s it going?” God, Yugi made having friends look so easy that it was enviable.

“Good, good, a bit slow today,” Ryuji replied, before turning to you with a raised brow and a curious little smirk. “Well, until you and your lady friend arrived. You may as well take a corner table, we’re not busy right now,” you didn’t know how you felt about the terminology, but if Yugi was embarrassed, he didn’t show it, and just snorted.

“Thanks Ryuji, ah - sorry, you probably think I’m rude. Buckshot, this is my friend, Ryuji Otogi, his family own this place,” he falters on how to introduce you, but you just look up at Ryuji - if only for a moment, ignoring the burning sensation in your cheeks when his smile widens.

“Yeah, it’s just Buckshot. I don’t…like my name, people only call me by my name if I’m in trouble,” you said, grimacing at how lame you sounded.

“Ohhh, gotcha. Yeah, I can see that, you’ve got trouble written all over you,” Ryuji gives you a playful wink, and you flush darkly, though Yugi somehow misses the wink, he doesn’t miss his friend’s naturally flirtatious and playful tone. He’d always been a little like that, ever since his first day at Domino High, so he’s rather used to it, but he can sense your discomfort growing from how rigid you stand next to him.

“We’ll take the corner,” Yugi thankfully and mercifully interrupts before you lapse into the awkward silence he was now aware was a natural state for you. He knows Ryuji means well, and is just being his playful self, and shoots him a reassuring smile and a look that says they’ll chat later.

“If you’re not busy, you can join us in a bit,” you feel your stomach drop when Yugi says that, but Ryuji says something about not going on break for a while, and that he might, before turning away to get menus while Yugi ushers you towards the large corner seating, which is an impressively plush sofa for larger parties and a table he usually sits at with all of his friends.

You’re feeling very alien, and out of your own skin in this moment, and sit across from Yugi in a hard chair instead of beside him, because being beside him on the sofa feels strange and overly familiar.

“So… Domino University, hm?” Yugi starts off the conversation again when a silence settled, gesturing to your unzipped hoodie and you nod stiffly, cooling off a little now Ryuji was busying himself fetching menus and talking to his father off to the side.

“Yeah, second year,” you said “-distance learning mostly,” you add as an afterthought.

“That’s cool. I still have to take the entrance exams,” said Yugi conversationally, though it was abundantly clear you weren’t one for shooting the breeze, he wondered how to make the conversation less painful, at least, for you. “How are you finding it? Mr. Watari mentioned you were on a computer science course?” getting right to the meat of what he was interested in was probably the best way to go with you, he reasoned.

You sag a little, partially relieved. You could talk about your work and your course all day, that was something that didn’t require smalltalk.

“Yeah. I’m doing modules on AI, human-computer interaction, vision and graphics, general programming and engineering. I’m probably specialising in AI or something related to, but everything sort of relates to another in some way. First year was your standard theory of computing and general basics,” you said, feeling yourself get a little bit more in your element. “I find it easy, mostly. I mean, challenging, sometimes, but not that often. It’s more how you choose to apply what you learn that determines how you find the course, if that makes sense,”.

Yugi reclines back and accepts the menus from Ryuji when he comes back, sliding yours to you whilst carefully considering your words, noting the small brightness in your eyes that lit up when you spoke about your interests.

“That makes sense, I’m guessing you have some freedom on your projects. I’ve um, I’ve looked at your developer’s blog. I didn’t understand much of it, but it looked pretty interesting,” Yugi said, his tone is earnest, but it makes you frown. What exactly was Mutou’s angle? You gathered he had some sort of business-like interest from what Watari had told you, but he was taking a while to get to the point of why he wanted some one on one with you after such a small chance encounter. Just how much did Watari tell this guy? It felt like he basically sold your resume to him.

“My dev blog is a mess,” you said bluntly. “I’ve got more than one project on the go and I didn’t really write it expecting anyone to look at it,”.

“I was particularly interested in your Spirit Forest project. I showed it to Ryuji, actually, and one of my...friends,” he chose his words carefully. “It’s a simple idea if I understood it right, but it has some real potential. My friend thinks so too,” he gestures for Ryuji to join you, and he removes his apron, tossing it to his father, before heading over and sitting beside Yugi, ignoring your visible tensing.

“Ryuji, remember when I showed you that Spirit Forest link last night? Buckshot here is the developer, the girl from the repair shop I told you about,” said Yugi casually.

“Ah yeah, that’s you is it?” Ryuji turns to you, leaning back and placing one long leg over the over, giving you a considering look while you stared a hole into the end of the table, shoulders slowly drawing up to your ears in tenseness.

“Yes,” you said quietly.

Fucking Hell, why were you like this? Why can’t you just _talk_ like a normal person? People like Mutou and Watari made it look so easy, and fuck Otogi for being pretty and making it harder, too.

“Damn Yugi, you move quickly,” Ryuji chuckled. “Yeah I looked at your dev blog. I’m a bit more techy than I look. It’s a seriously cute project. Simple idea, could have potential if you pull it off right. Your framework is solid. Honestly, from what I could understand of your dev blog, you’ve got some lofty projects for one person. I’m kind of impressed,” and this time, he isn’t flirting, but you feel yourself getting hot all over - because on top of all of your social anxiety, you aren’t the best with accepting praise so bluntly.

“Thanks,” Fuck, why can’t you carry a conversation outside of work…? You really are hopeless without Aito or Ken.

“Ryuji has some experience pitching games, it’s why I showed it to him. Honestly, this all just started out as random curiosity. When Mr. Watari said you were head engineer, I was just curious, and then he mentioned your blog, so I had to check it out. Just to see if you were up to his hype about you - and well, I was convinced,” Yugi shrugged. “You’re good,”.

“That - I mean, it means a lot, but I don’t understand why you - you needed this…lunch meeting. I thought you had questions about duel disks and custom work and what I was doing for Mister Katsuya,” you said awkwardly.

Ryuji cannot help but laugh at Jounochi being referred to as ‘Mister Katsuya’ - and Yugi bites back on his own urge to chuckle.

“I’m sorry if you feel deceived,” Yugi said. “It started as that, before we saw your developer blog anyway. I was on it most of the night before I realised I had to go to bed. I just, I had a feeling when I met you yesterday, call it intuition,” - and Watari’s meddling.

“A feeling?” you’re spun for a loop now, what did Yugi Mutou want with your particular talents? What has Watari roped you into?

“A feeling that you could be what we’re looking for. I don’t know if you heard, but, I’ve publicly partnered with KaibaCorp, and we’re in the market for a new game, and some serious talent,” said Yugi, which - from the look on your face, had caused a mental flatline.

For a moment, Yugi worried if he’d overloaded you.

If you could have had a 404 error display on your eyelids, it would have, he couldn’t possibly mean you-- based off a mess of a blog and a meddling old fart---?

“You, you’re the serious talent,” Ryuji butted in, with a deadpan tone and trademark cheeky smirk.

They waited with baited breath for a response, until you managed to tremble out a weak reply.

“I think I need a glass of water.”


End file.
